This project is designed to fuse the expertise of laboratories at two different institutions in order to contribute man's understanding of cell growth and development. These processes define the architecture and health of all eucaryotic organisms from man to higher plants. Plant cells, however, provide a simplified model system for all eucaryotic growth and development, one that can now be chemically and genetically manipulated, even to the point of transgenic organisms. Specifically, the enzymes controlling the biosynthesis of a unique growth factor, the dehydrodiconiferyl alcohol glucosides (DCG), will be isolated, characterized, and their respective genes cloned. Various chemical and genetic approaches will be employed to manipulate the production of these growth factors in vivo manipulating the levels and activities of the enzymes. The manipulation of one pathway should simplify the other interacting systems that are certainly involved in the control of cell growth. The definition of the pathway involved in DCG production and the control of the biocatalysts involved should provide the first step in understanding of one of the black boxes of biochemistry-how information is received and processed in the control of cell growth.